New Delhi: Government plans to set up national
institutes in Delhi and Chennai dedicated to research in old
age medicines and health care.
"National Institutes of Ageing would be setup at AIIMS,
Delhi and at Madras Medical College, Chennai. These two
centres would be the premier institute in old age care and
medicinal researches," he said.
Speaking at a function here on the occasion of
International Day of Older Persons, Azad said the National
Programme for Health Care of Elderly (NPHCE) has been formed
by the government to take care of the medical needs of senior
citizens.
"The NPHCE programme envisages establishing geriatric
wards, rehabilitation centres, and geriatric clinics at
various levels of the district health care delivery system.
The interventions are designed to capture the preventive,
curative and rehabilitative aspects in the geriatric field,"
he said.
The institutes will also have eight regional centres in
Delhi, Varanasi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati,
Chennai, Jodhpur. Each regional centre will get a grant of Rs
30 crore and would be equipped with modern equipment and
trained staffs, Azad said.
During last few decades life expectancy has increased
substantially and the population of senior citizens has
increased four-fold since 1951.
"The number of senior citizens above the age of 60 was
76.6 million as per the Census 2001 which constituted about
7.5 per cent of the total population. At this rate of
increase, it is projected to become 173 million by 2026," he
said.
PTI
